Gaia Giordano

Born in Rome to parents from Matera, she moved to Chianti at the age of 26 to follow her father – a journalist with two passions, architecture and cooking. She’s gone a long way, truly and metaphorically. After studying Law, she decided to follow her interest in flavours and aromas and the curious family gastronomic imprinting that unites the North and the South.

She attended the Professione Cuoco course at Gambero Rosso and graduated as a Sommelier AIS. Then she started to work with chefs like Angelo Troiani and Cristina Bowerman; from the former, she acquired her technical skills and her understanding of raw materials; from the latter, her tireless commitment and curiosity. Later she collaborated with Maurizio Santin when he opened Cuoco Nero and other restaurants in Rome, and she also worked for an editorial project, a series called Cucinare Insieme curated by Stefano Bonilli for Giunti.

This experience came useful later, when she had to prepare Niko Romito’s recipes for the Unforketablevideos, a project launched in 2013.

At the same time, she started to collaborate with Niko Romito Formazione, and became responsible for the Spazio project. She managed the opening of the first restaurant-cum-workshop in Rivisondoli where the pupils who attend the school test themselves with the adrenalin and the possible unexpected events of a real service.

She has a unique talent for transforming the chef’s intuitions and complex technical processes into simple and comforting dishes that preserve both the precision of Reale and a very Mediterranean down-to-earth character. Perhaps the title of Head Chef at Spazio doesn’t give a full idea of her work, which includes organising, training and of course cooking, what with the design and the preparing of the dishes. Always on the move.

While for some time it seemed she had more or less settled in the kitchen ofSpazio Milano, after managing the opening of the one at Eataly in Rome and the summer project in Salina, Gaia – temporarily in the Capital for the launch of the new, beautiful Spazio Niko Romito Roma, the beginning of the international evolution of the project – is ready to live between Milan and the rest of the world, where eight new restaurants are expected to open in the next five years.

Has participated in

Identità Milano

by

Luciana Squadrilli

a journalist born in Naples now living in Rome, she tries to make her three passions meet: eating, travelling and writing